Aleksandra, your five damage succeeds in killing the beetle in 1009. It had 4 hp left.

For the record, the one that Gudbrand killed had 6 hp.

Engelhart, I hope you see this: you drop your hammer. It bounces into 1208, under Lothar's feet (he's attacking from 1208 when Engelhart is). Could Engelhart please roll a d6 to see if the hammer breaks?

Lothar does not kill, but does successfully stun the beetle in hex 1209. It skitters back to 1210 and will take no action the next round.

[In general, it is going to be somewhat difficult to deal with dexterity vs. who posts first regarding who enters what square. If Lothar had so wanted, for instance, he had the dexterity to beat Engelhart to 1108; but Engelhart posted first.

I've used the dex rule for a long time and I called on it by default in the last round. Perhaps I shouldn't use it here? Or perhaps we can let the higher dexterity VETO if the lower dexterity character rushes into a hex first. I think I prefer that, as I don't mind adjusting the map up until I actually have to publish it.

Exactly what are you doing? No one here asked you to leave; your companions are in the midst of a fight with at least five creatures at the moment and you're abandoning them? Why? Because I rolled for Gudbrand?

Makes no sense ~ I assume this has something to do with you feeling that you don't actually have time for the campaign, perhaps only not now, perhaps not at all ~ but even if that is true, and you need until tomorrow night before you have more free time, why leave??? Why not just stand your ground?

I don't wish to offend, but I thought you had made a commitment here. Don't act hastily ~ think out what you're doing]

I'll draw my club and advance to 0909, turning to face the beetle in 1009. That is between 3 and 4, depending on if the club is a "heavy" or "light" one handed weapon, which leaves no AP to attack this round.

My spear is 6 feet long and was resting, last I saw, in 0908. Would it be possible to reach for it from my current hex in a future round, even though Lothar currently occupies that space?

Equally, does the club gain any bonuses to-hit or damage from wielding it in two hands?

I have 1 AP remaining, so with the beetle in 1009 dead I'll spend it to advance into 1009, unless you rule that I've declared my movement for the round, which I'm equally fine with.

Clarifying the bit with the spear, after some thought, strikes me as unecessary. I have no reason to think I'd ever be able to reach something from an adjacent hex that did not protrude into said adjacent hex by a significant margin.

If you have an AP before the end of the round is declared that hasn't been used, for heaven's sake, of course you can use it!

Regarding the adjacency of hexes:

Try to imagine two combatants standing in conjoined hexes like electrons moving in valence shells. They're in combat; they thrust, parry, push against each other, flow over and back between the two hexes like subshells or atomic orbitals. That's why the "melee hex" costs extra to move out of; because the enemy is floating around inside their valence shell, messing with the valence shells composing a circle around the combatant.

So you're not "reaching" into an adjacent hex. Your character is simply "represented" as being in this particular hex, even though you're actually moving throughout the center hex and on the edge of the six surrounding hexes continuously as combat ensues. Does that help with your sense of distance?

Surprise vacation today. After three hours this morning, the outside -35 C weather caused a pipe in the restaurant to burst. Water turned off, no cooking today! So I am home early; anyone want to run?]

I'm not hearing anything from Maxwell . . . so I have no idea if he's still in this. I have a long and positive history with him, so I'll give him some rope; but in the meanwhile, let's just leave him fretting in 0609.

Everyone else has moved, so I'll start getting the next round of combat up.